What a ZimaBlade can't do: the limits I hit running it as my home server

I've been using a ZimaBlade as my primary home server for the past few months, and while it has served me well, it does have its limitations. Here are some of the key challenges I encountered:

1. Power limitations: The ZimaBlade's power supply is limited to 36 W via USB-C. This means that additional components like risers or powerful GPUs cannot be powered directly from the same supply. Each hungry component should have its own dedicated power source.

2. Small PCIe slot: The PCIe slot on the ZimaBlade is limited in size and power. It supports PCIe 2.0 x4, providing about 2 GB/s bandwidth. However, it has a 25 W power limit, which restricts the size and power consumption of any GPU that can be used. Furthermore, hot-plugging cards is not supported, and the slot only supports decoding up to 4K without a significant VRAM requirement.

3. Grounding issues: When using a riser with separate power supplies for the main board and the GPU, it's crucial to ensure that both components share the same ground domain. Otherwise, the GPU may not be properly recognized or function correctly.

4. Read-only OS: The ZimaBlade's operating system, ZimaOS, is immutable and consists of a read-only squashfs file system. This can be confusing, as the root filesystem appears to be full (100% used), even though it's actually a compressed file system. Editing root-owned files or services requires using a privileged Docker container.

5. App store reliability: The ZimaBlade's app store has been known to remove installed applications unexpectedly, such as the Homepage app from CasaOS. This can be problematic for critical services, and relying solely on the app store for updates and installations is not recommended.

6. Limited storage capacity: The ZimaBlade comes with a 29 GB eMMC storage device, divided into a 17 GB /DATA partition and a separate 5.5 TB array for drives. This leaves very little space for user data, swap files, and Docker images. It's recommended to store large or infrequently accessed data on the separate array, while keeping the /DATA partition for small, frequently accessed files.

7. Lack of self-monitoring: While ZimaOS includes an app like Uptime Kuma to monitor system health, it cannot monitor the ZimaBlade itself. If the ZimaBlade fails, the monitoring app will also fail, making it difficult to detect and address issues promptly. To mitigate this, a separate monitoring script can be set up to regularly check the ZimaBlade's status and restart the Uptime Kuma container if necessary.